Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports
National Games: Hrutika Shriram wins second gold in diving, Zeel Desai adds another gold to Gujarat’s tally
Favourite Hrutika Shriram  stayed on course to repeat a golden hat-trick in the National Games Diving competition by winning the Women’s 10m Platform event at the Sardar Patel Aquatics Complex in Rajkot on Wednesday.
It is her second gold in three days, and her 10th crown in four editions of the National Games.
The Mumbai-based Railways diver, who hails from Solapur, was not at her best but logged the maximum 179.30 points to clinch the title. Palak Sharma  took the silver with 175.10 points and Esha Waghmode  claimed bronze with 172.35 points. The trio had finished in the same order in the 3M Springboard contest 48 hours earlier.
“I was not at my best today and I erred on a couple of dives. There were butterflies in the stomach and I thought that I would have to settle for silver. But I am glad I was able to clinch gold despite that,” she said after emulating Services’ men’s diver Siddharth Pardeshi in winning a second gold here.
Meanwhile, at the Riverfront Sports Development Complex in Ahmedabad, up and coming Gujarat tennis player Zeel Desai stepped up in the absence of experienced Ankita Raina to help the State retain the Women’s Singles gold. The third seeded Zeel was leading Karnataka’s Sharmada Balu 6-2, 3-2 when the latter conceded the match due to an ankle injury.
Zeel dominated proceedings, winning the opening set easily thanks to her quality ground strokes. Sharmada Balu managed to put her under pressure by winning the first two games of the second set but the local girl quickly earned the break back in the third.
Sharmada then twisted her ankle while going for an overhead shot, took a medical timeout and tried to continue thereafter. But with her movements hampered, she conceded the match in the next game.
“I am extremely happy to win the gold today. It was special to play with so much support on the home turf,” Zeel Desai said. “I am used to the heat of Ahmedabad and it helped me while playing against some of them.”
Zeel was also all praise for the organisers who could pull off the National Games in just three months. “I have been to many international tournaments and I can say that the facilities here are equivalent to most. It’s commendable that all these arrangements were made in just three months by the State Government,” she said.
Tamil Nadu’s Manish Sureshkumar also benefitted from the physical discomfort and rib pain Maharashtra’s Arjun Kadhe faced after winning the opening set. He could not maintain the same tempo after taking a medical time-out in the second set and Manish Sureshkumar pounced on the opportunity to win 2-6, 6-1, 6-3.
Back in Rajkot, two National Games records were smashed as the biggest names in Indian swimming made waves yet again in the pool. Assam’s Astha Choudhury, who had won the Women’s 100m Butterfly gold on the opening day with a record, lowered Richa Mishra’s mark of 2:21.66 in the heats of the 200m Butterfly with a 2:21.52 winning effort.
Punjab’s Chahat Arora also set a new Games mark in the women’s 50m Breaststroke with a time of 33.17 seconds, eclipsing the old time of 34.43 seconds set by AV Jayaveena . Chahat had won a silver in the 200m Breaststroke on the second day.
The results :
Diving
Women’s 10m Platform: 1. Hrutika Shriram  179.30 points; 2. Palak Sharma  175.10; 3. Esha Waghmode  172.35.
Tennis
Men’s singles: Manish Suresh Kumar  beat Arjun Kadhe  2-6, 6-1, 6-3. Bronze medals: SD Prajwal Dev  and G Manish .
Women’s singles: Zeel Desai  beat Sharmada Balu  6-2, latter retd; Bronze medals: Yubrani Banerjee  and Rutuja Bhosale .
Other results:
Archery 
Men
Individual: Bronze medal play-off: Gurwinder Singh  beat Umesh Singh  141-140.
Team: Maharashtra beat Uttarakhand 230-220.
Women
Individual: Sakshi Chaudhary  beat Parneet Kaur  143-140.
Team: Bronze medal play-off: Punjab beat Delhi 224-221.
Mixed Team: Bronze medal play-off: Uttar Pradesh beat Andhra Pradesh 152-151.
Badminton
Men’s Singles : B Sai Praneeth  beat M Raghu  21-12, 21-19; M Mithun  beat Aryamann Tandon  21-9, 11-21.
Women’s Singles : Malvika Bansod  beat Aditi Bhatt  21-10, 19-21, 21-13; Aakarshi Kashyap  beat Tanya Hemanth  21-9, 21-15.
Women’s Doubles : Sikki Reddy and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela  bt Kavya Gupta and Khushi Gupta  21-16, 21-17; Shikha Gautam and Ashwini Bhat  beat Mahreen Riza and Arathi Sara Sunil  23-21, 21-11.
Men’s Doubles : PS Ravikrishna and Sankarprasad Udayakumar  beat HV Nithin and Vaibhaav  21-17, 21-14; Hariharan Amsakarunan and Ruban Kumar  beat Shyam Prasad and S Sunjith  21-19, 21-16
Mixed Doubles : Sai Pratheek and Ashwini Ponnappa  beat Hariharan Amsakarunan and VR Nardhana  23-21, 13-21, 21-19; Rohan Kapoor and Kanika Kanwal  beat S Sunjith and TR Gowrikrishna  24-22, 21-18.
Basketball 
Men’s semifinal: Tamil Nadu beat Services 90-47 .
Women’s semifinal: Tamil Nadu
beat Madhya Pradesh 82-30 .